Issues Affecting American Indians in Tennessee
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The nation terminology versus the use of tribe is pretty recent. Someone will ocrrect me if I'm wrong, but I do believe EBCI originally stood for Eastern Band of Cherokee Incorporated. And I think it had to do with how they had to incorporate in North Carolina at the time. Then, over the years, people started calling it Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. I haven't really paid much attention as to when Nation began appearing on the EBC seal. Maybe because EBC hasn't made a big deal about it, it's been flying under the radar. It made more of an impact when CNO began saying Cherokee Nation because they were claiming THEY were the Cherokee Nation and saying that UKB and EBC were not true governmental bodies. Now, anyone who has followed the politics over the last few decades, knows that CNO was originally called The Western Band and there are people today who still use that term, but it's mostly us old geezers. Then, around 1976 or so, they became the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and that's when they starting putting down the other Cherokee tribes. When Wilma Mankiller was chief, the rhetoric became really loud and strident that CNO was the "real" nation and UKB and EBC weren't real tribes. Since CNO was getting most of the money and had many more people, for a while there it looked like the BIA might start backing them. They still try to bully the smaller Cherokee tribes, who knows why? Perhaps it is because both the UKB and EBC has a higher ratio of full bloods than CNO--jealousy? Could be. Seems like they just want to be the big dog on the block. Now they have dropped the Oklahoma in an effort to puff themselves up more. Silly me, I thought Chad Smith was a pretty nice guy back when he was a marshal. Of course, all I know about him these days is 2nd and 3rd hand. Anyway, the only beef I have with CNO is that they try to bully the smaller Cherokee tribes. Not nice.

Oh, anyone else notice that John Cornsilk is running for Chief? That could get interesting if he wins.